It has been decided to name the short "weekend" backpacking trip that Goose and I squeezed into our two and a half days off in between guiding camping tours "The Genesis Hike". The genesis of my re-entry into the blogging world, the genesis of Goose's commitment to re-enter the world of YouTube videos, the genesis of our adventure lifestyle and future in Alaska, and even more specifically the genesis of the decision to plan our most recent upcoming adventure trip, hiking the Hayduke Trail. I'm sure I will be getting into great detail about that upcoming hike in future writings, so for now I will focus on the hike I am currently enjoying, the Genesis Hike, on the Goldmint trail in the Independence Mine area of Alaska.
I returned from my last guiding trip on Wednesday night. Goose and I turned over all the gear, washed the van/trailer, did some laundry, showered and were on the road just after 11pm, the night sky as bright as the early evening. After a beer run we headed for the mountain area behind town and were soon camped at the trailhead for the night. The next morning over coffee we realized in our haste to leave base camp Goose left his backpack behind. Although we could have continued with just his daypack and without his hiking clothes we decided to return for the pack as well as a few other things we could pick up while in town. After the town run we returned to the trailhead, baked some macaroni and cheese in a bacon lined cast iron dutch oven over a wood fire, packed our packs and got on trail around 6pm.
The mild trail meandered along the banks of Little Suisitna River, through fields of multi-colored wildflowers, and deep into a canyon surrounded by glacier topped cliffs and steep rock faces. We marveled at the beauty along the way, enjoyed the opportunity to hike at our own quick paces, stopped to observe the beaver dam lined and pools with large lodges and beavers busy working mid-day oblivious to the sun as they are lacking the typical nocturnal part of their brain this far north. We chatted most of the hike and when we fell silent we hollered out the occasional, "hey bear!" to warn the possible critters in the woods of our approach. When we reached the end of the canyon we worked our way up the left side and found a huge squishy tuft of tundra grass where we set up camp for the night.
The original idea for this hike (I approach most aspects of life with only ideas vs. plans to keep options flexible) was to follow the Goldmint trail to an saddle in the mountain range to the left, cut across the saddle and join with the Archangel trail which we would then follow back to the road leading to where we had parked. However the following day after a leisurely morning enjoying our camp spot and coffee we realized that we had hiked too far the previous day, at least to be able to easily return to the car the following day in order to return to work by noon, and would have to remain in the area and return via the Goldmint trail the next morning. With less pressure to not have to bushwhack over a mountain ridge this day we set off on a climb for an afternoon of adventure. After climbing to the top of a waterfall we settled in next to the river hot from the climb and the intense Alaska sun. We had a picnic by the water, drank our ice cold beers we had chilled in the stream and lingered in the sun. Later in the day what we had thought to be a totally isolated mountain top was interrupted by two hikers cresting the ridge below us just in time to disturb some naked hippie napping in the grass. We decided to pack up our bags and head back down the ridge line to find a camp spot for the night.
We again dined by the river and then stashed our bear can and other smelly items away from both our dinner spot and our tent. We returned to bed where we read out loud to each other for a little while (we are just finishing Edward Abbey's 'Monkey Wrench Gang') and then fell asleep.
We had to rise early the next morning as we needed to be back at base camp to work that day. We used an alarm (typically not allowed on my backpacking trips) to rise before the sun and after coffee we headed down the mountain side to find the trail we had left behind a couple days earlier. After returning to the well beaten path we had a beautiful morning hike to start off our day. We spent much of the time on that morning walk discussing our upcoming plans for the fall hike and our dreams for even farther in the future. No matter where each day takes us I know it is likely to always be an adventure.